


if i bleed now

by nightbloomingflowers



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Ahsoka Tano, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives Lives, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives Needs a Hug, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives is a Good Bro, CT-7567 | Rex is a Good Bro, Fix-It, Gen, Human Disaster Anakin Skywalker, but we’ve got to EARN the fix it first, everyone is a good family, lots of bonding, this is a big fix it there’s a lot to unpack here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28356543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightbloomingflowers/pseuds/nightbloomingflowers
Summary: One minute Fives is in a warehouse on Coruscant, waiting to tell his commanding officers of a conspiracy at the heart of the Republic. The next, he’s on the run with his former Commander Ahsoka Tano. There’s chips in the head of every clone trooper to make them kill their Jedi, and the Chancellor is in on it.‘Do or die’ takes on a lot more meaning when you’re the only two people in the galaxy that can save the clones and Jedi from death, or worse.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo & CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives & Ahsoka Tano, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives & CT-7567 | Rex, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, more will be added as story continues - Relationship
Comments: 82
Kudos: 157





	1. embers

**Author's Note:**

> hi there! i’m very excited about this fic—it takes place directly after Fives’ s6 chip arc in The Clone Wars. the POV will alternate between Fives and Ahsoka, and maybe other characters as we go on. hope you enjoy!

Fives awoke with a start.

For a moment, all he could do was stare in shock at his unfamiliar surroundings. Durasteel walls, a pair of bunks, one of which he currently laid on. His ARC training kicked in before he could even think straight, and he sat up in the bed, scanning his surroundings. Empty. A ship’s bunk, by the look of it, one entrance and exit and no possible weapons in sight. A blank clone helmet sat on the ground before him, matched to the armor he wore.  _ What? _

Then everything came rushing back.  Tup. The chips. Nala Se. The Chancellor.  He remembered going to the warehouse he’d told Rex and the General to meet him at. Then...nothing. Had the Chancellor gotten to him?

Footsteps sounded down the hall outside the door. 

Fives shot to his feet, searching again for something, anything, to use as a weapon. The room was empty save for the helmet. His head was clearer now, thankfully, and he jammed it on, pressing himself to the wall beside the door just before it slid open.

A small figure stepped inside, and Fives didn’t waste any time aiming a punch to their face. 

“ _Wh_ —“ The figure dodged in a blue and orange blur, faster than any normal reflex, backing away to the opposite side of the door. Her hands twitched toward her belt before she seemed to think better of herself.

“ _Commander Tano?_ ”

Half of him wondered if he was still drugged. Ahsoka Tano had left the Jedi and 501st weeks ago, now. But if this was a hallucination, it was a very realistic one. 

His Commander—former Commander—held up her hands placatingly. “I’m not going to hurt you, Fives. And it’s just Ahsoka, now.” 

Just Ahsoka. Her sabers were noticeably absent from her hips, he assumed just as far gone as his pair of blasters. Besides a new outfit and some growth in her montrals, she looked exactly the same. She raised her eyebrows slightly as he looked her over. Acted the same, too.

_I’m not dreaming._ He needed answers.

“Comm—sir, what is this? Where are we?” Fives kept his fists up, not that it would do any good if she attacked. Her sabers were noticeably absent from her hips, but he doubted he was in any shape to take down a former Jedi, lightsaber or not.

“We’re in hyperspace, headed for Nal Hutta.” 

_ Nal Hutta?  _ Seeing Five’s confusion, she elaborated. “It was the first place I could think of where we could disappear.” She paused. “Rex commed me, told me what happened. I had to get you out.”

Rex. Rex had trusted him, believed in him enough to send Ahsoka. His _vod_ hadn’t abandoned him. Ahsoka was outside the Republic. She had more power to help him figure out what the _kriff_ was going on. 

Unless this was all a lie. Ahsoka had left the Republic, yes, but anyone could be involved. She could have known about the chips. But it was Ahsoka. He’d trust her with his life under any other circumstance.

He gritted his teeth in frustration. “How much did Rex tell you?” 

Ahsoka’s jaw tightened. “He told me what happened with Tup on Ringo Vinda, and how you went to Kamino. How you came back and apparently attacked the Chancellor.” She rushed on before Fives could interrupt. “He— _we_ didn’t believe it. Something else had to be going on, so I got you out. But now you have to explain why the entire Republic thinks you’re a traitor.” She kept her voice measured, even, as if afraid he’d snap. He recalled the exact same tone in her voice when she talked down panicked shinies after their first battle.  _ Great._

Well...he had a hazy memory of talking to Kix in 79’s, panicked and high-strung. So maybe the tone was justified. 

And Ahsoka, Fives remembered, had been accused of treason too. Not that any of the veterans of the 501st had believed it—and they’d been right. But Ahsoka left the Jedi anyway. 

“How do I know you’re not working with the Chancellor, or the Kaminoans?” he challenged. _Give me a reason to trust you._ A flicker of hurt passed over her expression, but maybe she felt his desperation, for it was gone within a second.

“Rex told me to tell you that the last thing he said to you was ‘bring him home, Fives.’ And I know what it’s like to be accused of a crime you didn’t commit.” 

There was an edge to her voice as she described her own experience with accusations, slight enough that it almost went unnoticed. Convinced now, he put his fists down and removed the bucket from his head.

“You...might want to sit down for this. It’s a long story.”

He started with Tup’s strange behavior before Ringo Vinda. The words were halting at first, but as he went through Tup’s kidnapping and rescue, the story began to pour out of him almost of its own accord: how the Kaminoans had been acting strangely but he’d thought nothing of it at first, how AZ-3 helped him uncover the truth, how General Ti tried to protect him from Nala Se. Ahsoka’s expression darkened throughout his tale, and he could tell it was an effort for her not to cut in. He stopped before explaining what happened in the Chancellor’s quarters. It felt like he’d been talking for hours, though in the ship’s quarters there was no way to tell.

“I’m sorry about Tup.” There was genuine sorrow in Ahsoka’s eyes, and it made Fives remember late nights in the mess hall in the hours after battle, Ahsoka sitting beside his brothers as they told stories of those they’d lost. He remembered a younger Commander that used to sleep in the barracks when nightmares plagued her sleep. 

_ Why did you leave? _ he wanted to ask. 

“Me too,” he said instead.

Ahsoka chewed her lip, considering her next words. “What happened when you got to Coruscant?”

Fives shut his eyes against the onslaught of memories, the chilling feeling of helplessness. The way he couldn’t get himself to calm down, how Kix looked at him the way he looked at Tup when he didn’t remember shooting the Jedi.

“I—“ he inhaled sharply, and after a moment felt Ahsoka’s hand settle gently on his shoulder. Another breath. Two. Then:

“I remember waking up on the ship and feeling all wrong. I think they drugged me.” 

Ahsoka’s eyebrows shot up, and she made some sort of high-pitched hissing noise. 

“General Ti took me to the Chancellor, but she didn’t come into the office with me,” he continued. “And—I started to tell him about the chips. About the threat they posed.” Fives swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. “He just...laughed. And then—and then he said  he _knew._ He told me he’d planned it all along, and when the time came he’d activate the chips inside every clone, strip  _ every single one of us _ of our very selves to serve him. He told me that someday we’d come to our senses and see what we’d done to the Jedi, the Republic, and we wouldn’t be able to live with it. But we’d keep going anyway, because  _good soldiers follow orders._ ” He spat out the last words, and slammed his fist into the bunk they sat on. 

Shoulders trembling, Fives looked up and registered the shock in Ahsoka’s expression. With painstaking effort, he unclenched his fist and lowered his voice. He  needed her to believe. 

“I know it’s a lot to believe. But I swear it’s true. I would never betray the Republic. But I fight for my  _ vode_, too. And the Chancellor’s Republic would throw them aside.” 

For a moment, there was silence but for the low hum of hyperspace around them. Then Ahsoka spoke.

“I believe you.” 

Fives stared at her with a mix of crushing relief and surprise. 

“I’ve known you for years, Fives. And it doesn’t make sense for you to lie about this—you know I’d probably be able to see through you with the Force,” she said. “Rex said Kix told him you sounded unhinged, before. But now you sound like you. That would make sense if you were drugged. And if Tup completely lost himself, that _can’t_ be unrelated to a corroded chip in his head.” Her voice was angry now. “We have to stop it. You—all of you—deserve better than that.” 

This was the Commander Tano that the 501st missed so badly. He almost smiled. It was only one more person on his side, but in this moment it felt like a galaxy’s worth of difference. 

He wasn’t alone. And that meant everything.

Ahsoka grinned, but it was more like a baring of her fangs. The same thing she did in the middle of a firefight. 

“Where do we start?”

* * *

Saving millions of people was easier said than done. Fives didn’t have his own chip anymore, so they had no proof and no way to find out more. Not to mention that Fives was presumed dead—Ahsoka had set the warehouse on fire as they left. It had been two days since then. Whatever drug that Kaminoan _sleemo_ had slipped Fives was powerful. 

She just hoped no one questioned the lack of a body at the warehouse. Rex was on their side, at least. Maybe he’d convinced the Guard not to look too closely. 

That was a long shot, especially since Rex was a terrible liar. 

It had been weeks since she left, but every thought about Anakin or Rex felt like a stab to the heart. Fives had definitely noticed. The question laid unsaid between them, and she couldn’t decide whether she was grateful or not that Fives didn’t bring it up.  _ Why did you leave? _

Ahsoka shoved away her churning thoughts, staring ahead at the swirling blue of hyperspace as they continued to plan. 

“We need information, but we can’t just go asking around,” she said. “Lots of questions about a chip in clone troopers’ heads will inevitably get back to the Chancellor.”

The Chancellor was another question. The man was already arguably the most powerful person in the galaxy. Why did he need the clone troopers to kill the Jedi? 

The only thing she could think was that the Chancellor wanted to become a dictator of sorts, and knew the Jedi would stand in the way. But if that was the case, there were easier ways to ensure no resistance, ways that the control of millions and the genocide of thousands more could not be traced back to him. The Republic loved him; if he wanted to gain absolute power, it wouldn’t be all that difficult. The Senate had already voted countless times to give him more “emergency powers.” 

There had to be something else. The Force tugged at her, trying to show her what she couldn’t see, but anytime she tried to look it was as if the revelations were coated in fog. It was frustrating to say the least. 

This plan had been years in the making. The clones had been commissioned more than ten years ago, before Palpatine was even Chancellor. He had no way of knowing that the galaxy would go to war.  Right? 

Maybe he was working with the Separatists. It was no secret that Dooku wanted the Jedi gone—maybe they’d brokered a deal of some sort: I’ll murder all the Jedi if you let me rule over the Republic and Separatist Alliance.

If that was the case, Dooku would kill the Chancellor the moment he reached his goal. 

Ahsoka groaned in frustration, setting her head between her knees. 

Fives glanced over at her from the copilot’s seat, and she could see his amused expression out of the corner of her eye.

“Shut up,” she grumbled. 

He mock saluted in answer.

The speed at which she and Fives fell back into old habits surprised her. Then again, joking had always been easy. Trust was harder. She’d left them all behind, and all the joking in the world wouldn’t undo it. If she’d been there, maybe she would have seen that Tup was—

She dug her nails into her legs.  _ No use dwelling on the past.  _ All she could do now was save the clones, and the Jedi, and the entire Republic. Easy. 

Ahsoka blew out a breath, straightening in her seat. She checked the chrono. 

“We’ll be at Nal Hutta in twenty minutes,” she told Fives, and looked consideringly at the armor he wore. “Check the bunks or maybe the cargo hold. You’ll need something else to wear.” 

Fives nodded to her blue jumpsuit. “You’ll pass as a civvie in that?”

“It’s a mechanic’s outfit. I should be fine.” 

With that, he left the cockpit in search of a less conspicuous outfit, leaving Ahsoka alone with her thoughts. 

Whatever lingering doubts Ahsoka had about Fives’ story, they had dissipated in the hours they’d spent planning. Nal Hutta was a long way from Coruscant, even at light speed. There had been plenty of time to talk. The more Fives shared, the faster the last bits of trust Ahsoka had in the Republic faded.  _ Everything _ about his story was wrong, from the way the Kaminoans treated the clones to the Republic’s—and the Jedi’s—apparent acceptance of  anti-aggression chips. She knew the Republic was willing to overlook a lot of wrongdoing. But this? 

_ I shouldn’t be surprised, _ she thought bitterly. The entire Republic was corrupt. Which meant, again, another issue.

Even if Ahsoka and Fives found irrefutable evidence of the chip, they needed support. There was no way for the two of them to remove the chips from every clone in the galaxy. Which meant telling people. And they had no idea who to trust. Rex, yes, but that was only one battalion—and Ahsoka had her own reservations about telling Anakin. 

One step at a time.  First, Nal Hutta. First, find real evidence. 

Ahsoka stared out the viewfinder, wondering how, exactly, they were to pull this off.

* * *

After Fives returned, Ahsoka couldn’t stop laughing.

“This was all I could find,” Fives said miserably. He was wearing a lime green pair of pants that were at least three sizes too large, with a baggy purple top and black jacket. He still wore his clone boots, but in his right hand was another pair. Bright red, with heels.  _ Heels. _

“At least whoever owned this thing was close to your size,” Ahsoka said, grinning. “You could have been stuck with a Lurmen outfit.” 

“I’m no fashion expert, but even I know that  _ this_,” he gestured to the entire ensemble, “isn’t what most people look for in clothing. And there’s no kriffin’ way I’m wearing those boots.”

The ship console beeped behind her, and Ahsoka made for the pilot’s seat. Less than a minute to Nal Hutta. 

“Well, you definitely don’t look like a clone anymore,” Ahsoka commented, lips still twitching. Fives glared at her whilst stuffing the red boots into a wall compartment. 

The console lit up again, and Ahsoka set her hand on the hyperspace lever.  _ 3, 2, 1...  _

Deep space appeared around them, stars and distant planets woven through the blanket of darkness surrounding Nal Hutta. Fives came up behind her, taking in the dusty planet and the atmosphere bustling with ships.

His unease flowed through the Force, matched by her own. This was where the work began.

Ahsoka just hoped their first mission wouldn’t turn out to be their last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fives just came out of drug induced sleep and this is what he gets (because i enjoy dumb humor). personally i think someone could pull off that outfit but that someone is not him. this chapter was shorter then the next ones will probably be but i hope you enjoyed, and comments give me lots of happiness :)


	2. on being known

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fives and Ahsoka try to stay under the radar and plan what in the galaxy they’re supposed to do next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> an eternity after chapter 1, chapter 2 is here! sorry it took so long, but the next chapters should come out quicker :) no warnings for this chapter, enjoy!  
> (side note, does anyone else’s ao3 do a thing where everything you italicize gets weird extra spaces that you try to fix but sometimes it doesn’t work? is there a fix to that?)

Fives and Ahsoka landed within one of the main cities of Nal Hutta, the freighter all but crashing on to the landing platform with a cacophonous  _ boom.  _ Ahsoka resisted the urge to curse at the junk heap. By some miracle it hadn’t come apart in hyperspace, but now came the seemingly-impossible task of selling the thing. 

At least her frustration was immediately eased by glancing at Fives’ outfit.

With a human and Togruta traveling together, sticking to cities was their best option for staying under the radar. And their best option to find a buyer for the ship. Hopefully. They needed credits, desperately. The Jedi had given her a stipend upon leaving—to her surprise—and she’d worked some mechanic jobs here and there, but not enough to support a trip across the galaxy. Thank the Force that fuel was cheaper in the Outer Rim.

Ahsoka slid out of the pilot’s seat to dig through her small pack of belongings. Her meager collection of credits, her old Jedi outfit—she shoved that aside before she could think about it—some spare parts... _there._

She tossed Fives a black cloak. It barely passed his shins as he slipped it on, and Ahsoka snickered.

“What’s our cover?” he asked, pointedly ignoring her amusement. 

“Uh...mechanics?” She gestured to her jumpsuit, but he raised an eyebrow at her.

“We’d make an odd pair of mechanics to venture to Nal Hutta, sir.”

Ahsoka leveled him a  _look_. “You’ve got to drop the ‘sir.’ It’ll attract attention.”

“Right, sorry, si— _Soka. _ Ahsoka. Ashla.” He grimaced, and she rolled her eyes at him good-naturedly. 

He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. “Anyway,  Ashla,”  he continued, “we’d be better off as bounty hunters. Especially since our ship is a bucket of bolts.”

True. Ahsoka reached further into her pack as she nodded her agreement, retrieving a blaster and holster belt that she slung around her hips.

“A DC-17?” Fives sounded impressed. A bit jealous, too. His blasters had been noticeably absent when Ahsoka found him in that warehouse. She’d seen him reach to his hip for reassurance only to come up empty, and knew she’d done the same countless times. Her sabers felt like a phantom limb, still. 

“Rex taught me to shoot,” Ahsoka finally answered, ignoring the whole host of memories that surfaced. “Seemed like it was best to stick with what I knew.”

Fives nodded, tugging up the hood of the cloak. “Alright. Bounty hunters, here to trade a ship and have a drink. Easy.”

She stood, following him to the landing ramp. “You were right about the bounty hunter cover. No one would have believed a mechanic in lime green pants.”

Fives muttered curses under his breath as Ahsoka smirked at him.

* * *

Selling the ship turned out to be more difficult than they’d thought. 

Their first buyer, an over-enthusiastic Quarren, wanted to trade a single-person fighter. The next was a human who tried to cheat them into a ridiculous price. After several hours and fruitless conversations, a bartender at one of the cantinas pointed them toward a red Twi’lek with fashion sense to rival Fives, who was apparently in possession of a 690 light freighter. 

The Twi’lek leaned back in her seat, knife swinging carelessly in one hand, as Ahsoka and Fives slid into the booth across from her. Well,” she drawled. “What’s a pair like you—“

“We’ve heard you’re in possession of a 690 light freighter, and want to trade,” Ahsoka said flatly. “Allanar N3 light freighter, prime condition.” Fives coughed next to her. _Okay,_ _maybe not prime condition. _

” I’ll be the judge of that,” she said, but her interest peaked in the Force. Probably because anyone who wanted to trade an N3 for a 690 was desperate, a fool, or both. Ahsoka pounced.

“With fair credit compensation as well, that is.”

The Twi’lek groaned. “Never can get a good deal on this hellhole.” Her knife twirled one, twice, three times as she considered them. “Fine! I’ll have to inspect your ship first, then we’ll talk credits.” 

She stood, moving to exit the booth. “The name’s Tali. Your ship’s close?”

“Down the street,” Ahsoka said. “I’m Ashla, that’s Finn.”

Tali waved in a vague gesture of welcome. “Well, Finn and Ashla, good business.”

She chattered about the weather, a bounty she’d cashed in, and just about anything else as they made their way to Ahsoka and Fives’ freighter.

“So, what brings you to Nal Hutta?” she asked Fives. 

“Er—bounty hunting jobs?” Fives said. Ahsoka tried not to groan as Tali gave him an odd look.

“Didn’t you have to do stealth work as an ARC?” Ahsoka hissed as the Twi’lek pulled ahead.

“The whole point of stealth work is that you don’t stick around to make conversation,” Fives said under his breath. “Besides, Echo was always the better liar.”

Ahsoka decided not to push, hearing the slight hitch in his voice on Echo’s name. She sped up to catch up with Tali as their ship came into view, and they ascended the ramp.

“This thing is  not prime condition, girl!” Tali called as she walked down the corridor.

“From a certain point of view!” 

Tali shook her head, rapping her knuckles along the durasteel walls as they went. In the smaller space, her hand on her knife was much more sure. Warning taken. Once they arrived at the cockpit, her carefree demeanor evaporated completely as she inspected every inch of durasteel.

Eventually, Tali stood from where she’d been looking under the console, dusting her hands. “Ship’s a hunk of junk. I’ll trade for the 690, but no credits included.”

“This is much larger than a 690, even if it isn’t in the best condition,” Ahsoka argued.“Credits are still on the table. And we still have to inspect your ship.”

Tali waved a hand dismissively, walking out the cockpit doors. Ahsoka and Fives looked at each other in bewilderment. 

“Is she—“

“Do we follow her?”

Fives made for the cockpit door. Tali was already halfway down the corridor. “Hurry up back there!” she barked. 

“Well, that answers that,” Ahsoka muttered. Fives mouth quirked up at the edges. 

“She reminds me of Rex.  _ Move it back there!” _His voice deepened to imitate—mock, really—and Ahsoka giggled, ignoring the pang in her chest once again.

Tali’s ship turned out to live up to her description. Almost. It was white, jagged yellow racing striped painted on either side, and in overall good condition. It even had a med droid. Fives had grabbed her wrist with an iron grip upon making that particular discovery. She had no idea if a med droid had the capabilities to remove the chip, but they’d have to try. And hope.

Once they finished inspecting the rest of the ship, they talked credits. 

“You’re ship’s in pretty good shape,” Ahsoka said to Tali. “I’ll do two thousand credits, and include the med droid.”

Tali snorted. “Nice try. One thousand, no med droid.”

“Twelve hundred, with the droid. Final offer. It’s a good deal.”

Tali gave her a long look, and shifted the same considering gaze to Fives. Neither of them backed down.

“Fine. Deal.” 

Fives opened a wall compartment as Ahsoka shook Tali’s proffered hand. A gust of air blew out of a cracked pipe, and he hastily adjusted his hood as it began to blow backwards. Tali’s eyes went straight to his face, and her surprise was like a shockwave through the Force. She drew her blaster.

“You’re a clone.”

Fives jerked backward as if he was struck. “What? No!”

“I know a clone when I see one. And I  _ knew _your voice sounded familiar. What is this?” Tali demanded. “Some kind of Republic setup? You’ve got no sway here.”

“No!” Ahsoka said desperately. “We’re not with the Republic, I swear.” 

Tali kept her blaster pointed at Fives as she addressed Ahsoka, pinpointing him as the larger threat. A mistake. “If you’re not with the Republic, then what’s your business on Nal Hutta? Clones aren’t allowed to leave the army. I know that much.”

Ahsoka hesitated before responding, Fives staying silent as well. What was she supposed to say?  _Well, actually, he’s an accused traitor to the Republic. I was, too, but they found the real culprit before I was executed._

Before she could find the words, understanding filled Tali’s gaze. “Wait. You’re a deserter.”

“I’m—“ Ahsoka silenced Fives’ protests with a glare. 

“Yes. Yes, he’s a deserter,” she said to Tali. Desertion was the safest excuse. The only one, really. 

Tali seemed taken aback at her admission. “Is that true?” she addressed Fives. 

“...Yeah,” he said, shoulders slumping. His resignation was real enough.

Tali slowly lowered her blaster, and Ahsoka tried not to sigh in relief. “How do I know you’re not lying?”

“What would the Republic want with some Twi’lek bounty hunter?” Fives said. “On Nal Hutta, of all places.”

“We’re not with them,” Ahsoka said again. “If we were, then we would have attacked you by now.”

Tali stared them both down, the panic slowly receding in her eyes and in the Force. 

“I did a job for the Republic, once,” Tali said. “Hack into a Separatist database and all that.” She paused. “Worked with some clones. It was a fair deal, but you never know with the Republic. Maybe they want their credits back.”

Fives took a step forward, prompting Tali’s hand to fly back to her blaster, but he didn’t move any closer. “I left the Republic. It’s—“ he fumbled over his words, seeming to fight with himself before continuing. “It’s corrupt, and wrong, and has betrayed me and my brothers over and over again,” he got out, raising his hands in a gesture of peace. “We’re not here for you. Just a ship.”

Tali hesitated. Ahsoka and Fives didn’t move.

“Alright,” she said finally. This time, Ahsoka did loose a sigh. “I’ve no reason to tell the Republic about a clone deserter. Better to stay away from that mess. Time to forget and go our separate ways, yeah?”

Ahsoka searched the Force for any sign Tali would betray them, and found none. And there was nothing they could do, anyway, short of killing her. Mind tricks only worked on the weak. Even if she tried, if it failed she’d out herself as a Jedi.  _Former Jedi. _

Tali pulled out a credit chip and they made the exchange in tense silence. Once finished, Tali quickly backed away to the cockpit door. She stopped before leaving. 

“I worked with some clones,” she said to Fives. “Good men.” She paused. “Consider investing in a helmet. And some different pants. You don’t have the confidence for those.” Tali grinned, the caution in her posture bleeding away slightly. 

Fives chuckled. “Thanks.” 

She nodded to Ahsoka, and was gone. 

Ahsoka and Fives were frozen in place for a moment, before Ahsoka came to her senses and made for the door. “I’ll follow her to her ship,” she said tersely, and left. 

* * *

After some time, Ahsoka returned and sat down heavily in the pilot seat. 

“Tali left, didn’t talk to anyone,” she said tiredly.

Fives sat down across from her. “Guess I need a helmet,” he offered half-heartedly.

Ahsoka dragged a hand down her face. “I didn’t think anyone would recognize you. And I  froze when Tali figured it out.”

“We didn’t expect it,” Fives said. “And we got lucky that Tali didn’t much care.”

“What happens when we don’t get lucky? We’re up against the entire Republic. We both got caught, last time, and this time if we get captured it means _everyone _ dies.”

Fives stared at Ahsoka in surprise. In his days with the 501st, she’d always been confident. Not like this. 

The memory of Umbara rose, unbidden. Rex falling apart for the first and last time in front of Fives. 

Command was a burden he wished on no one. Being ARC meant Fives had to make some hard choices, but never was he in charge of the fates of more than a few men. The reason Rex or Ahsoka, or the General, even, had appeared so indomitable was because they had to. Sure, Ahsoka had come to sleep in the barracks in the early years, but even that faded away as she was given more responsibility as Commander. The 501st put their trust in her, and in return she was strong for them. 

Fives stood and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I made a bad call. I should have put on a helmet, or stayed on the ship, or—I don’t know. Something.” He paused. “We can do this. We know what we need to do, and we know what we’re fighting for. Our  _ vode _ .” Her  eyes widened at that. 

“It’s not all on you. With respect, you’re not my Commander anymore.” He smiled ruefully. “Right now it’s just us, but we’ll get the support. We’ll get it because we have to. For our brothers, for the Jedi, for the Republic.  _ We can do this_.”

Ahsoka stared up at him, eyebrows raised. Fives cleared his throat awkwardly and sat back down.

“I think you missed your calling,” she murmured. “You could have been quite the public speaker. Senator, maybe.”

Fives barked a laugh. “Not on your life. Politics isn’t for me.” 

A smile tugged at the edge of her mouth.

“Thank you,” she said quietly. “And—it’s not all on you, either, you know. You always used to take every mistake on yourself. I don’t think that’s changed much. Some things are beyond our control. Even if we’d gotten you a helmet, Tali said she recognized your voice.” She stopped, waiting until he met her gaze.

“We’re going to figure it out. Together.” She stood, offering him a hand to pull him up.

“Together.”

* * *

They planned.

Ahsoka went out and bought new outfits for them both. Fives now had a blaster, helmet, and outfit that, oddly, reminded him of Cad Bane. Still, the lack of armor made him feel much too vulnerable for his liking. Ahsoka was hesitant to part with her jumpsuit, but eventually opted for something similar to her Jedi outfit—gray-green leggings with a black tunic-skirt, long-sleeved this time. She even managed to find black sleeves to cover her lekku markings and a retractable faceplate designed around her montrals, though she made a face when putting it on. 

No one looked at them twice after that. They didn’t dare talk business in the cantinas, so they had plenty of time to observe and listen in, hoping to hear about Republic and Separatist movements. 

There was precious little to discover. Most of the residents of Nal Hutta, unsurprisingly, wanted nothing to do with the Republic or Separatists. The most they got was that the Republic had made some headway on Felucia. That was General Secura and Commander Bly, Fives recalled. He hoped they were doing all right. Felucia had been a nightmare for the brief period the 501st had been assigned, and the 327th had been there for months already. 

Part of him whispered that his brother’s efforts on Felucia would mean nothing if he failed, and Fives crushed that voice. 

Back on the ship, they struggled to piece together the endgame.

“So,” Ahsoka said, biting into a piece of mystery meat in the common area of their ship, “the Chancellor.”

The one good part of being on the run was that they didn’t have to live off ration packs. Fives had tried nerf for the first time yesterday. Not that he was keen to repeat the experience. 

The tilt of her head drew him out of his thoughts. “I just—what’s his end goal? If he kills all the Jedi then the Separatists will win the war,” he said.

She stared at her meal for a moment. “Maybe he  is a Separatist,” she said finally. “At this point, it’s what makes the most sense. He’s working with Dooku, and in exchange for ensuring the death of the Jedi, he thinks he’ll rule over everyone left.”

Fives snorted. “He’d have to know that Dooku would kill him the second he got what he wanted.” The man wasn’t an idiot, from what Fives had gathered a little over a week ago. Dooku would discard Palpatine, same as Palpatine would do to the clones. He said as much to Ahsoka.

“That’s what I thought, too,” she said. But maybe he has a plan for that. Or he thinks Dooku will keep to his word for whatever reason.”

Fives tried to temper the frustration bubbling up inside him. All the clones,  fighting for a _lie_.

“Hey,” Ahsoka said, nudging his leg with her foot. “We’ve got this, remember?” 

He took a deep breath, loosening his white-knuckled grip on the table.  _Anger gets us nowhere_ , a familiar voice echoed in his head. _Think. _

It was likely the Chancellor was working with the Separatists. Which meant...

“Tali mentioned hacking into a Separatist database,” Fives said aloud. “If the chips are a Sep plot...”

“There could be information on them in their systems, or at least a link to the Kaminoans,” Ahsoka finished. “It’s a long shot, but worth a try.”

Long shots were all they had. Fives pulled up a map on his datapad. “We’re at Nal Hutta. The closest Separatist occupied planets that aren’t deep in Separatist space are Chalacta, Deysum, Nanth’ri and Gamorr. Not Gamorr. Gamorreans don’t like outsiders, to say the least.”

Ahsoka pulled the datapad toward herself. “We need a planet populated enough that a Togruta and human won’t draw attention, but out of the way enough that the Seps aren’t too concerned about guarding it.” She looked down at the map. “Deysum is too far into Sep space.”

Fives wracked his memory for all the planetary information the Kaminoans had ingrained into his brain. “Chalacta’s population is small, and it’s much more out of the way. We’d be noticed more, but Nanth’ri is much more important to the Separatists. Might be harder to get access to a base.” 

“But with Chalacta, we risk that they’re too isolated to have access to all the Separatist systems.” Ahsoka passed the datapad back to him. “Nanth’ri is our best option.” 

“Now we just need a plan to get in and out of a highly-guarded Separatist base without anyone seeing our faces. Easy.”

Ahsoka laughed. “Isn’t that what ARC training is for?”

Fives grinned back. “Sounds more like it’s time for a Skywalker plan.” The smile slipped off Ahsoka’s face at that. “Er, I mean—sorry.”

Before Fives could figure out what to say, she pulled an expression of forced cheerfulness. “A Skywalker plan. The Seps won’t know what hit them.”

He decided to leave it alone, for now. Force knew he had plenty he didn’t want to talk about, either. “If we land in the outskirts of the main city, we can find a less guarded base. Communications center, maybe.”

He switched the datapad screen to a map of Cin’tel, Nanth’ri’s capital, and the hours went by as they went through every scenario they could think of.

They had to be careful. They’d gotten lucky with Tali, but Fives knew from experience that their luck wouldn’t hold. The Chancellor was still head of the Republic, and there were only two people in the whole galaxy that knew of his true motivations. 

Part of him hoped that this was all just a mistake—that the Chancellor hadn’t said those things, that this was just another nightmare that Fives would wake up from to fight another day. But sometimes reality was worse than the nightmares. And if he was being honest, they’d been living a nightmare for a long, long, time. Even without the chips, his _vode_ died in droves everyday for a Republic that didn’t see them as people.

_ Look out! Echo! _

Never again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh oh so someone knows (part) of their secret......  
> hope you enjoyed this chapter and feedback is appreciated!


	3. marching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fives and Ahsoka head to Nanth’ri in search of answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m sorry my update schedule for this is nonexistent but here’s the next chapter, hope you enjoy!! this is kind of a monster of a chapter we’re at 5 or 6k here

On the way to Nanth’ri, Fives looked on with half awe, half fear as Ahsoka twirled her newly-won electrostaff in the small common space. Electricity off, thankfully.

Just before they’d left Nal Hutta, some Weequay had tried to hit on her in a bar. Before Fives could so much as aim a punch for his face, the  di’kut was on the ground, the electrostaff that had been strapped to his back in Ahsoka’s hands. She’d been thrilled. He chuckled just thinking about it. 

The staff hadn’t seemed all that similar to a lightsaber, but Ahsoka had gotten the hang of it within a couple hours. The DC-17 was still holstered at her belt, though Fives wasn’t sure if she kept it with intent to use, or just for a reminder of the men they’d left. 

He knew Ahsoka felt guilty over leaving. Hell, he’d even been mad at her at first. But Jesse, of all people, was the one to calm him down, make him realize that the people she called family had betrayed her. There was no coming back from that. 

And Fives himself being accused of treason definitely put things into perspective. He didn’t blame Ahsoka, as much as she clearly blamed herself. 

A loud  _ CLANG _ echoed through the room, and he looked up to see Ahsoka sheepishly moving away from an electrostaff-shaped dent in the wall. 

“I think I’ve got it now,” she said. She held out the staff to him. “Want to try?”

Fives pushed off the wall he had been leaning against to take the staff out of her hands. She stepped back as he twirled it experimentally.

“It’s heavier than I thought it would be,” he observed, tossing it up a bit. 

“The Weequay made some modifications. I opened it up, earlier—I think he made the electricity more powerful and added more insulation on the inside.” 

Fives nodded absently, beginning to spin the staff a bit faster. He’d held an electrostaff before, even launched one into the chest of a droid, but he wasn’t used to fighting with anything but blasters.

He twisted, jabbing the staff downwards, and the tip grazed the little bit of hair that had started to grow back.

“I think you just electrocuted yourself, there,” Ahsoka said, trying and failing to hide her smile.

“Alright, alright,” he grumbled. He moved it about a bit more, before Ahsoka led him through some Jedi movements she’d modified.  _ Katas_, she called them.

“You’re pretty good at this,” she commented after they finished. “Maybe we can find you one of these staffs, too.”

Fives patted his blasters. “I think I’ll stick with these.”

Ahsoka didn’t respond, cocking her head toward the door. “Proximity alarm,” she said. 

He listened, but heard nothing. Togruta hearing. They made their way to the cockpit, and after a few moments Ahsoka powered down the hyperdrive. 

Nanth’ri appeared before them: a small,  mountainous planet interspersed with thousands of lakes. Part of the capital, Cin’tel, was carved into the side of a particularly large mountain range. 

“Pretty nice place the Seps have here,” Fives commented as they approached.

_ “Control to craft, state your purpose.”  _

“Craft to control, two bounty hunters on the job.” Ahsoka sounded bored, exasperated. Fives silently mock-applauded her acting improvement. She punched his shoulder.

_ “Please transmit target.” _

At least they’d thought to check the bounty list, just in case. Ahsoka transmitted their chosen target, a human who was wanted in three systems for fraud. 

The silence was long. Too long. Ahsoka shifted nervously in her seat. If this didn’t work, or if control asked for more information than they could give, they’d be shot out of the sky.

_ “Hold for scan.” _

Fives exchanged a panicked look with Ahsoka. The scanners wouldn’t catch anything, but scanning was not usual protocol. 

So much for staying under the radar.

They did as they were told, waiting for the scan to complete.  As the silence stretched on, Fives began to rethink their plan. Why had their best idea been for a former Jedi and clone to break into a high-security database, on a Separatist planet in Separatist space? 

_ Sometimes you can only choose from bad options.  _

Echo’s voice had been in his head a lot lately.

_ “You may proceed to Hangar Bay 16.” _

Fives shook it off, slumping back into his seat in relief. Ahsoka loosed a slow breath as she guided the ship toward Nanth’ri.

“Too close,” he said. 

Ahsoka shook her head. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

* * *

They landed in Bay 16 without any trouble. Ahsoka donned her headtail covers and faceplate, with a hooded cloak for extra cover. Fives followed suit with his own helmet before descending the landing platform. 

The bay door opened before them, and they were greeted with a bustling street surrounded by mountain peaks. People streamed in and out of the various buildings, talking on comms and chatting with one another. A few buildings looked very  _ Separatist_, with dull gray and black walls, but others were small shops, decorated with hanging lights that were strung over the street. They were on the open side of the city, and in the distance was the section carved into the mountain, earthen homes and buildings painted cheerful colors rising above them. 

Cin’tel was like the top level of Coruscant. People of all species walked the streets, blissfully unaware of the war that raged across the galaxy. Two kids ran in front of Fives, laughing and screaming as they played together.

It was beautiful. Beautiful, and so at odds with the droids sentries Fives spotted at the door to one of the larger buildings. He scanned over the sea of heads for others, but it seemed like there were only droids at a scattered few of the buildings. Ahsoka tugged her hood a bit lower, the electrostaff on her back swaying with the movement. 

“I can’t see a thing,” she complained.

Fives realized belatedly that he was significantly taller than Ahsoka and resisted the urge to laugh. 

“That building,” he nodded toward the black monstrosity looming over the street, “is crawling with clankers. Some of the other buildings have them too—only the plain durasteel ones—but not as many.”

The crowd thinned slightly as they moved away from the hangar bay, allowing Ahsoka a better view ahead. They relayed bits of information between them as they walked. 

“Only B-1s at that entrance.”

“Some sort of business center, supers at the door.”

They rounded the corner, and Fives glanced to the right. A dull gray building, unmarked, fully protected by clankers. A human walked out the door, dressed in Separatist officer garb, fully absorbed in whatever was on his datapad.  _ Jackpot.  _

“Rollies and supers at the door. No windows. I’ll bet that’s our best shot.”

Ahsoka didn’t turn her head, but she nodded. “Cover me.”

Fives stopped, motioning to one of the stores and talking nonsense about the furniture inside. Ahsoka stopped and turned towards him, eyes slipping closed under her hood. 

“Uh...those pillows look pretty comfy in there, maybe we get some for our ship, or for that friend of yours...”

Her eyes snapped open, and she pulled him away from the storefront. 

“Or not! You never appreciate my, er, decorating ideas!”

Ahsoka snorted. “Good to know some things never change. You can’t act if your life depends on it.”

“Hey, I seem to remember  someone saying ‘ _unhand me, brigand!_ ’” He pitched his voice up an octave for effect. Without skipping a beat, she kicked him in the leg. 

Eventually, they found a cheap inn to get food and a room. Once inside their room, they set the food down and swept for bugs. Fives set up a scrambler that he and Ahsoka had fashioned back on the ship. 

“Should be good now,” he said, flopping down on one of the beds. Ahsoka sat on the opposite bed and retracted her faceplate. Fives set his helmet on the ground. 

“I didn’t sense that many people in the building, but there were a lot of droids. At least two floors. We should lay low a couple days, and then scout it out.” 

Fives tried to curb his frustration, but Ahsoka seemed to sense it from a mile away. “What is it?” She cocked her head. “Not a Commander anymore. Feel free to tear apart my plan,” she said wryly. 

He hesitated. “Do we need to wait that long? If we scout it out tonight, we can take a day to come up with a plan, get to know their guard patterns, and hit it fast. Get out before we’re noticed too much.”

He didn’t mention his burning impatience to  _ do _ something, though it was probably obvious. Who knew how long it would be before the Chancellor decided to activate the chips? 

Ahsoka was silent for a minute, thinking. “Sounds like a plan,” she said at last. “Well, part of a plan, anyway.” 

“Those are the best plans.”

She shook her head in amusement, falling backward so she lay diagonally on the bed. There was silence for a few moments.

“Hey, how do you sense droids?” She turned her head toward him. “Echo used to always want to learn about the Force, but he said that it works on living things.”

Ahsoka frowned, thinking. “It’s not so much sensing the droid itself, as the absence of life in the space it occupies. That’s why it can be hard to tell the difference between a stationary droid and a data console, for example.” 

“Yeah, ‘cause that makes so much sense.” Fives gestured helplessly and she laughed. 

They lapsed into silence, and Ahsoka looked at him consideringly. “I...Echo asked me about the Force, once.” She smiled at the memory. “He was in the medbay, and pretty high on painkillers. I think he would have been too nervous to ask if he wasn’t.”

Fives chuckled. “That’s for sure.”

“He asked me how different things felt in the Force. I wasn’t really sure what he meant, at first, so I told him about the droids, and how plants feel different than animals, and eventually I got to describing people’s auras in the Force.”

“Auras?”

“It’s...a hazy feeling of who you are. If you were at the door right now and I reached out with the Force, I would know it was you from your aura.” 

This was more about the Force than he’d ever learned in the GAR. He had to admit, he could see why Echo was so fascinated. “But you wouldn’t be able to tell me apart from another clone, right?”

“I would, actually. The aura’s not based on your DNA. More like your innate self. Not quite your personality, but that’s probably the closest I can describe it. Some people’s auras are very similar, but I haven’t sensed any that are exactly the same. Master Yoda even said that there have been a few Jedi that could  _ see _ Force auras if they concentrated. I don’t know what that would look like, though.” 

Fives stared at her. “Huh.”

He’d never considered that there was a way for the Jedi to tell them apart, aside from personality and small differences in their appearance. Although, it did make a lot more sense how Ahsoka always knew the names of the shinies, even in their blank kit.

“I told Echo that his aura was like waves, like the ocean,” she said. “His flows. Yours...zig-zags, and sparks. They’re opposite but similar, somehow.”

_ Two sides of the same coin, those two, _ Rex had joked once. 

He closed his eyes. “ _Nu_ _shi taab echaajla.” _

There was some indescribable emotion in Ahsoka’s gaze when he opened his eyes. “Not gone, merely marching far away,” she said quietly. 

He jolted. “You know Mando’a?”

“Some. I know  _ vod_, and curses, from all you guys. And Rex taught me some other phrases.”

Her stare was blank as she focused on the wall, lost in memory.

“Why did you leave?” he asked before he could rethink it.

His question hung in the air, and she deflated, looking bone-weary. Sitting up, she removed her faceplate and headtail covers, placing them on the table beside the bed. As the silence stretched on, Fives nearly apologized for asking, but something in her expression made him stay silent. A minute passed.

“I almost didn’t become a Padawan, you know,” she said quietly. 

“What? Why?” Fives said incredulously. Then he lowered his voice. “Sorry. I just—you were a great Padawan.”

Her hand was still on her headtail cover, and she was looking down at it pointedly. “Usually a youngling becomes a padawan by 13. But I was always...not quite the model Jedi.” Her hand strayed to her hip. Where her lightsaber would have been.

“I was too loud, too reckless, too angry. If we hadn’t gone to war, I probably would be in the AgriCorps right now. But Master Yoda came to my quarters one day. Told me I’d been apprenticed to Anakin Skywalker.  The Chosen One.” She snorted. “I was so afraid. I’d heard that he was unorthodox, which helped, but...I knew I’d been  assigned. He hadn’t requested me. He didn’t even want me, at first.”

Fives hadn’t known that, either. The General and Ahsoka had always been so close. “It got better, though,” he said. “You and the General were great by the time I got there.”

“Yeah. It did.” A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she withdrew her hand from the table and looked up at him. “Anakin, Rex, all the 501st—you guys are my family. I...I miss them.”

She didn’t continue. It didn’t escape Fives that she hadn’t answered the question, but he hadn’t really expected her to, anyway. 

The Jedi had been her home just as his brothers had been his, and they’d both had to leave that behind. They’d both been betrayed by the Jedi and Republic.

Fives rose from his bed and settled down beside Ahsoka.

“When my squad was on Kamino, we all wanted to be ARCs,” he said. Ahsoka’s eyes were on him now. He never talked about Domino anymore. “Every brother did. It meant you were every bit the soldier you were trained to be—and better. But my squad...we were a mess, at first.” He laughed bitterly. “Echo and I even requested a transfer. When we failed our final test, that should have been it. But General Ti let us retake the test. She taught us to work as a group instead of individuals, and we passed.” He pulled at the bedspread they sat on.

“And then?” Ahsoka asked quietly.

“And then Rishi. Even after getting stationed with my whole squad, all I could think about was being ARC. Three of them died on Rishi and it was just me and Echo that got ARC training. Training that didn’t even matter, because Echo died anyway, and then I was all alone with the one thing I had always hoped for, but all I wanted was to go back to Rishi.” His words dropped into the heavy silence of the room. “They always tell us we’re fighting for the Republic, and that’s what I always said, too, but...”

Pride for the Republic had been ingrained into every cell in his body—the Kaminoans had ensured that. Fives truly had been proud to fight. 

And yet. 

At some point the mantra in his head was no longer  _ for the Republic_, but  _ for Echo, for Tup, for Hardcase, for Hevy and Droidbait and Cutup _ and every other clone that had died and would die for this thing they called freedom. 

“I think I’m really fighting for my  _ aliit_,” he said finally. 

“Family,” Ahsoka murmured.

“Yeah. And that includes you, too,” he said, nudging her shoulder gently. 

She leaned her head on his shoulder. “It’s nice to have a thousand  _ vod’ika_.”

“We’re older than you,  _ vod’ika_,” Fives grumbled. He felt her smile into his shoulder. 

They stayed like that for a while. 

* * *

Long after the sun set, Ahsoka shifted, lifting her head from Fives’ shoulder. 

“That was much more comfortable than with the armor,” she joked with as much levity as she could muster. 

He laughed, probably for both their benefits, and got up to look out the blinds. It was dark now. Time to go. 

They donned their gear and slipped out into the night. Dressed in black, they blended in with the surroundings, but Ahsoka still worried.

The stores surrounding their target were dark, the lights strung across the street turned off in the dead of night. The streets, which in the daytime were filled with people, were nearly empty. The environment was so at odds with that of other cities that Ahsoka was struck dumb for a moment. A curfew, maybe. 

“It’s better this way,” Fives said under his breath, so quiet that she doubted it could be picked up by human ears. He boosted her up to the roof of a department store a few doors down from the building, and she reached down to pull him up. She didn’t dare use the Force blatantly, even under cover of night. They laid flat on the rooftop, and Fives pulled out a pair of binoculars. 

“No windows anywhere, like you said,” he muttered. “I don’t see any exits other than the front door, either. Wait.” He moved into a crouch. “I think there’s a roof hatch.” He handed the binoculars to her. Scanning the building confirmed Fives’ statement. 

“We go in through the roof hatch, then. Or if we could cut through the ceiling...” she trailed off, realizing once again that she didn’t have her sabers. 

“If we’re going the hatch in the roof, we’d better hope they don’t have an alarm system.” 

Ahsoka drummed her fingers, thinking. “The hatch is our only option. I’d rather not climb up there until we actually do this, in case they have motion sensors.”

“And what if there isn’t a way to open it?”

She grimaced. “Then we either find a new target or go through the front door.” 

They camped out for a few hours, waiting to see if anyone entered or exited. Nothing. Ahsoka reached out with the Force, and felt a few people inside, as well as several droids, but no one left. They identified the cameras on the building that they needed to take out, and decided to avoid the droid sentries at the front altogether.

“If I felt good about this before, I take it back,” Fives grumbled as they finally slid off the shop roof. They made their way to the alley behind the building, but it was more of the same: no windows, no entrances.

Everything relied on the roof entrance. Feeling slightly dejected, they returned to their room at the inn. Fortunately, their food, lying forgotten on the floor from earlier, was as good a pick-me-up as any. 

“Have I mentioned how much better this is than ration packs?” Fives asked, mouth full. “‘Cause it is. It really ish—“ He swallowed loudly. Ahsoka threw a piece of meat at him and immediately regretted not eating it. 

“We’re going to have to go back to ration packs soon, if we want to have enough credits to get by,” she said.

Fives held up a finger. “I know. Don’t ruin my moment.” 

Ahsoka laughed, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “About the building. Information center, probably.”

“We hope,” Fives said. “We don’t have much intel.”

“And limited options to get more.” She furrowed her brow. “We could ask around, or follow one of the officers when they leave.”

Fives got a glint in his eye. “That could work. I saw an officer walk out with a datapad yesterday. If we could swipe it—“

“We’d know what we’re getting into,” Ahsoka finished. “Do we have a spare datapad we can wipe?” 

Fives unclipped his from his belt. “Sending all the data to yours.” Her pad  pinged on the table. “And wiping.” He grinned. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

* * *

Getting the datapad hadn’t even been that hard. Within half an hour of walking around their target, an officer strolled out the front doors, datapad clipped to his belt. Halfway down the street, a crush of people were gathered around a street performer. The officer shouldered through them, and Ahsoka went in after him, bumping his side and switching the datapads without him giving her a second glance. 

They’d put a glitch in their datapad that would keep it from turning on. Hopefully it would keep the officer from realizing the switch until the next day, and they’d be long gone by then. 

Back in the room, Fives worked to hack into the datapad. After several minutes, his face brightened.

“Come on, come on,” he muttered. “And...ha!”

“Did you get it?”

“I’m in. Just let me—“ His eyes widened. “This kriffer’s got a map of the entire compound,” he said gleefully. 

”Really? ” She leaned over to look. Sure enough, blueprints for three floors, rooms labeled. “Maybe we can pull this off after all.”

”And,”  there’s a map of the ventilation system,” he added. “Might be too small a fit for me, but you could probably get through.”

Fives went through the rest of the pad, but it was mostly reports on various issues across Nanth’ri. One was a report on Separatist movements on Anaxes, and he sent that to Ahsoka to look over later. 

Even without any other intel, a map was more than they could have hoped for. The sun began its descent outside the window as they planned, and too soon it was time. They gathered their belongings and slipped out the window. 

The streets were a ghostland once again, much to Ahsoka’s relief. They flitted between the shadows, making their way to what they now knew was an information center. Ducking down an alley a few doors down let them move toward the back of the compound unseen. Once the security camera was turned the opposite direction, Ahsoka crushed it with a swift motion. She beckoned Fives forward, and he groaned softly. 

“I don’t like this part.”

Ahsoka grinned under her faceplate, reaching out to Fives and concentrating in the Force. Within a second, he began to float. Ahsoka lifted him to the roof, jumping up to join him once she let him go. 

The roof was devoid of cameras, thankfully, and Fives was already waiting at the hatch. Ahsoka spotted the vent cover in the corner. After working the cover free, she gazed into the small space for a moment before tossing Fives the electrostaff. He gave her a lazy salute in return and she slipped inside the vent. 

It was a tight fit, but nothing she couldn’t handle. She’d done her best to memorize the various vent junctions throughout the building in the limited time they’d had to plan. Just in case walking the hallways wasn’t an option.  _ Hope my memory doesn’t fail me now.  _

She took a right, and another right. In less than a minute she hovered over the correct grate. Peering through the bars into the room below revealed no one inside. She reached out with the Force, feeling a droid outside the door, and waited for it to move farther away. 

Carefully, she unlatched the grate, peeking out as much as she could to find the camera. It swiveled away, and she dropped silently into the room, crushing it with the Force. 

So far, so good.  The nagging feeling she’d had upon their arrival to the planet had receded slightly, and she took that as a good sign. Looking up, she located the roof hatch and moved to twist it open. From the inside, it was unlocked. It popped open with a loud  hiss  and Ahsoka glanced worriedly at the door, but she didn’t hear anything outside. 

Fives climbed down the ladder, and shut the hatch behind him.  _ Cameras?  _ he signed. 

_Disabled_.  They’d agreed to keep quiet, just in case. 

He nodded, and handed her the electrostaff and her small pack. She shouldered both, adjusting the padding she’d placed over her head to hide the prominent points of her montrals. Uncomfortable, but smart. Fives had been the one to suggest it, to make it more difficult for the Seps to identify her. 

She listened at the door, and reached out again. A couple droids a few halls down, but nothing too close. The stairs were down the hall, the central database on the second floor. 

As soon as the door slid open, Ahsoka checked the hallway. The corridor was brightly lit, white walls and floors. Nowhere to hide, but no droids in sight.  _ Clear_. She and Fives ran for the stairwell. 

But just as they got to the door, she heard the telltale  clank  of droid footsteps. Two sets. They ducked into the stairwell and Fives shut the door behind them, but not fast enough. 

“What was that?” The whiny tone of a B-1 droid echoed loudly through the space as Fives and Ahsoka scrambled down the stairs as silently as they could. 

“It sounded like it came from the stairwell.”

Fives and Ahsoka had nearly reached the next floor down, but there was nowhere to go except into the hallway, where Ahsoka was sure there’d be droids. They only had a moment before the droids came in from the third floor. 

_ Think_. Killing the droids wasn’t a good idea; if the parts were discovered then someone would sound the alarm. She looked up, searching.  Oh. Ducts. 

She grabbed Fives’ arm, signing a quick  _ sorry _ as she jumped up, managing to wedge herself between two of the ducts on the ceiling. She braced herself, and removed one of her hands to shoot Fives up towards her. He barely concealed a yelp, but a good thing he did, for at that moment the door opened to reveal two droids. 

Ahsoka couldn’t help but think of the time on the Trade Federation ship, when she and Riyo had been in a similar situation. Except this time she was on a Separatist planet, didn’t have her sabers, was no longer a Jedi, and in the company of a clone accused of trying to murder the Chancellor. 

“I don’t see anything,” one of the droids said. The other took a few steps down, and Ahsoka grimaced. She couldn’t hold this for much longer. Her hand started slipping down the side of the duct, and Fives jerked down for a moment as her concentration slipped. She gritted her teeth.

“It looks clear. Let’s get back to patrol.”

“Roger, roger.”

As soon as the door shut behind the droids, Ahsoka lowered Fives to the ground—too fast, but her concentration was shot. He groaned when he hit the floor, and Ahsoka dropped to his side. 

_ Never again, _ he signed, holding his stomach and looking queasy. 

_ Sorry, _ she signed sheepishly.

While Fives regained himself, Ahsoka reached out to the second floor corridor. As soon as she felt it was clear, they went in. Fives led the way, having memorized the hallways. He held up a hand before they rounded a corner, and the sound of quiet footsteps sounded down the next hall. 

But then droid steps echoed behind them.

There was a storage closet across from them; Ahsoka furiously tapped Fives’ shoulder and made for it. The door swished shut behind them, and she hoped to the Force that no one heard it. 

The droid passed them by, and soon after they heard another set of footsteps near. 

And stop. 

Ahsoka listed curses in her head, hardly daring to breathe. Fives was frozen behind her. 

The door opened suddenly, a Separatist lieutenant appearing before them. Just as shock registered in her eyes, Ahsoka sent a punch to her face. She sagged, unconscious, and Fives jumped forward to help grab her arms and stuff her into the closet. 

” _Shab_ _ ,”  _ Fives whispered. “Not good.” 

Ahsoka clapped a hand to her forehead. “ We have to hurry,” she whispered back, adrenaline starting to rush through her veins. She hadn’t really thought they’d be able to get in and out without confrontation, but this was early. They still had to get to the database.

Thankfully, they encountered no one else on their way. Ahsoka crushed the cameras as they entered the room, and they both made for the console. She kept her eyes on the door as Fives powered it up. 

The problem, they’d realized before, was that they couldn’t download any data, because the Seps could trace what they took. Information on the clones was a strange target for bounty hunters, and they couldn’t afford questions. They had to find whatever intel they could on-site, then get the hells out of there. 

“It’s asking for a facial scan,” Fives said almost inaudibly, hand signals abaondoned.

She half turned toward him. “Can you override it?”

He nearly slammed a fist into the console, but checked himself. “Yeah. I just need time.” 

Ahsoka couldn’t help shifting on her feet as she waited. She put her hands on her belt, catching herself checking for reassurance with sabers that weren’t there.  She wanted to groan, or punch something, or just  have her sabers back. 

_ Your lightsaber is your life.  _

Where were Anakin and Obi-Wan now? Did Obi-Wan still chastise Anakin for misplacing his saber, Anakin making fun of him right back for the number of times Cody grabbed Obi-Wan’s own lightsaber? Did—

She crushed her train of thought before it could go father.  The mission. _Focus._ Force,  what was wrong with her? 

“I’m in,” Fives said. “Searching by keyword—“

An alarm blared in the hallway. Fives and Ahsoka cursed in unison.

“Hurry!” she hissed, drawing the electrostaff. 

“I’m trying! Pulling files with keyword “clone—“

Fives stopped suddenly, and Ahsoka whipped her head around. “What?”

“There’s a document. There’s something here, if I can just...”

He clicked on the file, and messed with the console a bit more. Droid footsteps sounded down the hall.

“Any time now!” she hissed.

“It’s confidential! I can’t access it,  kriffing —“

“Switch,” she said, looking over at the console. Fives twisted around, pulling out his blaster. 

They were out of time, Ahsoka knew. Hacking a confidential document was out of the question. But she got a fleeting glance at the file, and saw a familiar seal. 

“They’re almost here!” Fives said, and Ahsoka clicked out of the file, cleared their search history, and powered off the console. 

“Time to go!” The droid footsteps stopped outside the door, and Ahsoka readied her electrostaff. The moment it opened, Fives shot one of them in the head, Ahsoka stabbing the other. They dashed out of the room and toward the stairs. 

“Hey!” a droid shouted behind them. An officer moved into their way, blaster drawn, but Fives shot them down. 

They kept running, into the stairwell and up the stairs, and didn’t bother to stop and check the third floor hallway as they barreled in. 

“Intruders!” Another pair of droids and a human stood before them, blasters drawn. 

“It’s a Twi’lek and a human!” the human called into their comm. Fives fired  _ one two three_ _,_ and they went down, Ahsoka taking down the droids beside him. 

She couldn’t help but grin. 

Fives laughed as they continued on.  This, they were used to. In combat, they thrived.

They cut down a few more droids on their way to the roof hatch, and then they were there. Fives scrambled up the ladder, opening the hatch, and Ahsoka stood ready at the bottom. He got it open and climbed outside, just as a droid came into the room and shot at Ahsoka.

Out of reflex, she raised the staff to block the shot, realizing too late her mistake. The shot grazed her shoulder, and she cried out in pain, jumping forward to electrocute the droid. Another came through the door, but Ahsoka was already flying up the ladder, coming out on the roof. Fives shut the hatch behind her and they ran for the edge. 

By the time the droid popped its head out of the hatch, they were gone. 

Fives and Ahsoka ran like hell towards the hangar bay. Her shoulder twinged with every step but she did her best to ignore it, keeping pace with Fives as they barreled toward escape. As long as they got there before someone could go through the chain of command, reporting two bounty hunters breaking into the information center, they’d be free. 

Ahsoka never thought bureaucracy could make her life  _ easier_. 

They reached the hangar bay in minutes. Whatever curfew or deterrent prevented citizens from walking the main streets at night was lifted by the hangar bays—pilots flowed in and out of the doors, several ships both landing and taking off as they reached the hangar their ship was housed in. They’d already paid the fee, so they ran up the landing platform and to the cockpit. Ahsoka furiously turned dials and switches, Fives doing the same from the copilot’s seat. But once they lifted off, she tried her best to appear casual. She was endlessly grateful for the myriad of ships going in and out, masking their escape.

They broke out of the atmosphere, and Fives set a vector for lightspeed that would take them back to the Outer Rim. The ship shuddered as Nanth’ri blinked away behind them. 

He let out a laugh of triumph, and grinned wildly at Ahsoka, who smiled right back. They’d done it. 

She took a breath, instinctively reaching out to the Force. Her relief colored the Force around her, but as the excitement of the mission faded, the bad feeling rose in Ahsoka’s gut again, and she couldn’t help but feel that something had changed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments are love!!   
> things are happening.......  
> that entire sharing scene in the room was not supposed to happen but it kind of just came out. i want them to BOND and be HAPPY ok. chaotic sibling duo that argues over who is actually older (yeah it’s fives clearly but it’s still funny). also i will take any opportunity to bring up domino squad oop  
> translations:  
> ni shi taab echaajla: not gone, merely matching far away—a mandalorian saying meaning that the dead are never truly gone  
> aliit: family  
> vod’ika: younger sibling (as vod means sibling, adding ‘ika the diminutive).

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading, and as always i’ll love you for commenting!!
> 
> (come find me on [tumblr!](https://soplantyourownflowers.tumblr.com/))


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